Can Hot Spot Technology Be Fooled By A Sillicon Tape?

Hello Cricket Enthusiasts,

What is Hot Spot in Cricket?

Hot Spot is a technology in cricket where we use thermal-imaging cameras to find out if the ball hits the bat. As you know when two objects hit each other, some heat is generated on the point of collision, even though we don't get to see it from the naked eye. But the thermal-imaging cameras can detect that exact point where the heat is generated. The point of collision can be seen as a white spot when a negative image is produced. Mainly, this is used to find out if the ball hits the bat or not. But, this technology is not 100% accurate.

Can Hot Spot Be Fooled?

Yes. It can be fooled. A set of scientists claims that if a batsman uses two layers of silicon tape in his bat, the heat generated from the collision of the ball hitting the bat is reduced drastically from the tape and hence the Hot Spot will not show the spot even if the ball hit the bat. The silicon tape reduces the friction on the impact between the ball and the bat.

Where Does Silicon Tape Come In?

Cricketers usually use tapes to repair their bats. The suspicion was that batsmen could be using silicon tape rather than the allowed tape which it that case gives them a potential advantage against faint edges.

Where It All Began

All these things were found out because of one incident. In the 5th test match of the Ashes series 2013, Kevin Peterson was accused from Australia's Channel 9 for using silicon tape because even though the Snicko technology clearly showed that there was an edge, the Hot Spot did not have a clue. Everyone wondered what happened because the edge was clearly visible in the Snicko with a big spike. Kevin Peterson clearly denied all the accusations made against him. However, this incident pushed us into finding out a big discovery in Cricket. 

Kevin Peterson
Image From telegraph.co.uk

This is why we can see most of the tournaments tend to use Snicko/RTS more rather than Hot Spot. Even if they use Hot Spot, they use it along with Snicko.

I hope you enjoyed reading the article. Thank you for taking the time to read the article. See You Tomorrow ❤🙌